Flash Forward

Scientists usually undertake experiments without knowing exactly how they will
turn out, though they certainly have a hypothesis they want to test. The Large
Hadron Collidor at the CERN institute was built for the purpose of investigating
particle physics. The collidor allows for the creation of sub atomic particles
which don’t normally exist in nature. The experiment being conducted on
that fateful day in April 2009 was supposed to result in the creation of a Higgs
boson particle, one of the particles which the Standard Model of particle physics
says ought to exist.

When Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides were very excited to be in charge of this
experiment, and threw the switches in anticipation of success - and woke up
two minutes later wondering what had happened.

Worse still, everyone else in the lab seems to have passed out at the same time,
for the same amount of time.

Even worse, as the reports started coming in from all over, it became clear
that every human being on the planet had blacked out for the same two minutes.

The odd thing was that it hadn’t felt like being unconscious. It was more
like being caught up in a memory, The problem with that was that all the memories,
once the news services began to report on the phenomenon, were of events that
would not take place for another 21 years.

It was a while before that became clear because the first order of business
had to be cleaning up all the mess and burying all the bodies of the millions
of people who had died when they blacked out - or flashed forward, as it came
to be called - while driving, walking down stairs, flying in airplanes, crossing
the street, or being operated on.

A lot can happen in two minutes.

The scientists at CERN are pretty convinced from the beginning that their experiment
had something to do with the disaster, though they could not see how.

Some people, like Theo, have no visions. This is troubling and Theo’s
worst fears are confirmed when someone who did have a vision recalls reading
an article in which his murder was reported.

Lloyd’s vision is troubling because in it he sees himself married to someone
other than his current wife.

From here on the novel follows several plot threads. There are those who want
their futures to come true and those who don’t, and then there are those
who are trying to outrun their visions (or lack of them) in order to survive.

The last fifth of the book takes place in the time frame the visions showed
to the world, as Theo struggles to prevent his own murder based on the clues
he has been able to assemble over the years.

Flashforward won the 1999 Aurora Award for Best Long Work in English.

Flash Forward (with two words) is Sawyer’s original title for this novel.
You will also find the book with the title FlashForward, which is the title
that has been given to the television series currently showing on ABC.

The series uses a lot of the ideas from the book, but also changes things. The
flashforwards last for two minutes and seventeen seconds and the future memories
are from only six months in the future. The main action takes place in Los Angeles
rather than near Geneva. The central characters are a group of FBI agents trying
to find out what happened rather than a group of scientists agonizing over what
they may have done.

It appears that the TV series will have the visions be the result of an experiment,
but one that is more like a plot. So far it bears only a passing resemblance
of the story in the book, but it’s interesting enough to keep me watching.